Prime-Time Ratings Race Gives High Scores to ‘Wings,’ NBC

“Wings” was flying high, “Twin Peaks” may have peaked and NBC stayed on top in the prime-time ratings race last week, it was reported today.

NBC withstood the ABC challenge of new spring shows as the two networks divided the bulk of the audience pie between them, while CBS had no shows in the top 10 and only three in the top 30.

If ABC could find ways to program “America’s Funniest Home Videos” seven days a week, who knows how high they could soar--two of the network’s four entries in the top 10 were back-to-back episodes of that show.

The most-watched race by ratings junkies was the one involving ABC’s “Twin Peaks.” NBC introduced “Wings” after “Cheers” on Thursday night in the time period opposite “Twin Peaks” and won both half hours, with “Cheers” the most-watched show of the week and “Wings” in seventh place. “Peaks” was 28th.

“Wings” replaced “Grand,” which bumped “Dear John.”

“ ‘Wings’ started off two share points better than ‘Grand’ was doing in the time period,” said Preston Beckman, NBC vice president, audience research.

“It’s holding as much as the ‘Cheers’ lead-in as ‘Dear John’ did. One of our concerns was that although ‘Grand’ put in a strong performance for us, we were hoping ‘Wings’ would give us an even better retention of the ‘Cheers’ audience and that appears to be the case.”

He pointed to all the “media hoopla” involving “Peaks” and the fact that it was followed last week by the edition of “PrimeTime Live” featuring Diane Sawyer’s interview with Marla Maples and said:

“You buy into the hoopla about ‘Twin Peaks’ and say, ‘Gee, we think “Wings” is a good show but it’s untested. Nobody knows about it.’ But it beat ‘Twin Peaks’ by nine share points.”

The Maples interview boosted “PrimeTime Live” to 19th place.

TOP 10 SHOWS

Ratings for national prime-time television last week, as compiled by the A. C. Nielsen Co.

1. Cheers (NBC): 21.9

2. Funniest Home Videos (ABC): 21.7

3. Cosby Show (NBC): 21.1

4. Funniest Videos (8:30 p.m.) : 20.9

5. Different World (NBC): 20.8

6. Roseanne (ABC): 19.8

7. Wings (NBC): 19.0

8. The Wonder Years(ABC): 18.4

9. Empty Nest (NBC): 16.8

(tie) Unsolved Mysteries (NBC): 16.8